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Biology

Physiology

Cufant resembles a baby elephant with a round, orange body and a light orange underbelly. It has dark green markings covering its head, legs, backside, and shovel-like trunk. In addition, it has a green bump on its head.

Behavior

Cufant uses its shovel-like trunk to dig the ground. It is also strong enough to carry over five tons without worry. It's copper body tarnishes into a green color when under the rain, hence the markings.

Bold indicates that this Pokémon receives STAB from this move.Italic indicates that an evolved or alternate form of this Pokémon receives STAB from this move.* indicates this move requires chain breeding.◊ indicates the father must learn this move in a previous generation.♈ indicates the father must learn this move via TM.

By tutoring

Bold indicates that this Pokémon receives STAB from this move.Italic indicates that an evolved or alternate form of this Pokémon receives STAB from this move.

Sprites

Cufant's Sword & Shield sprite

Cufant's Sword & Shield shiny sprite

Trivia

Cufant's first official appearance was in the trailer Gigantamaxing Changes the Game in Sword and Shield!, where it appears for a split second after being released from Chairman Rose's Poké Ball before Alcremie is introduced.

Prior to Cufant and Copperajah's introduction, Raichu and Gastly's Pokédex entries mention the Indian elephant, the animal they are based on. This is one of the cases of real-world animals being explicitly mentioned within the Pokémon universe, before its Pokémon equivalents were created.

Origin

The design for Cufant is based on an Indian elephant calf and copper. Its trunk seems to resemble some kind of holding or digging device, possibly a shovel. It may also be based on common depictions of elephants in Indian art. Significant to its Indian based origin design, copperware is known to be historically prominent in India as both a mallable and accessible material for craft goods, to help store food and water safely as its properties help kill off bacteria, and valued in medicinal ayurveda tradition. The Indian influence in its design despite being from the Britain-based Galar is due to British colonial influence in India. Its species, Copperderm, is a reference to the term pachyderm, an obsolete classification of mammals that included elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and tapirs. The term is still sometimes used today to refer to a mammal with thick skin, but it's used as merely a description of the animal rather than as a proper biological classification.

Etymology

Cufant comes from the words cute, Cu (The periodic table symbol for copper) and elephant or infant.